Yellowknife's appetite for hard drugs exposed at B.C. man's trial

A drug trial that began Mondayoffersanother example of why drug dealers from other parts of Canada come to Yellowknife the city's voracious appetite for hard drugs.

On the second day of Hassen Abdul Kerim Mohamed's trial, RCMP officers who searched a Finlayson Drive townhouse testified about what they found. The house was being rented by William Nelson Castro, a Burnaby, B.C., man on probation for cocaine trafficking. Mohamed was in the house when police raided it.

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Investigators who conducted the search found a stack of cash on the coffee table, 50 $20 bills in a sock stuffed into a shoe, cash in the top drawer of a dresser, and a large safe in a bedroom closet.

So, Mr. Mohamed was not on anyone's radar?-Jennifer Cunningham, defence lawyer

After finding the key on a TV stand in the same bedroom and opening the safe, investigators found it was stuffed with so much money they initially estimated its value by weighing it.

Back at the detachment, they counted it up $212,955.

The cash was the spoils of the operation selling drugs in Yellowknife. After his arrest, Castro pleaded guilty to dealing fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana and was sentenced to six years in prison.

Accused wasn't on RCMP's radar

At issue this week is what involvement, if any, the 50-year-old Mohamed had in the operation.

For more than a month, the RCMP had been surveilling Castro's house and a storage locker he rented in the Kam Lake industrial park.

Mohamed's lawyer, Jennifer Cunningham, questioned RCMP investigators Tuesday about whether herclient was a target of the investigation.

Mohamed is charged with possessing fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and possessing the proceeds of crime.

"So, Mr. Mohamed was not on anyone's radar?" Cunningham asked lead investigator Const. Darcy Driscoll.

"No he was not," said Driscoll.

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"And he was only seen a day or two before the search?" asked Cunningham.

"I can't say exactly when he was first seen, I believe it was during the week [before the search], but definitely the day before," said Driscoll.

Members of RCMP's emergency response team who executed the search warrant testified earlier this weekthat Mohamed was leaving the second-floor bathroom as they entered the home.

They said they found a small bag of cocaine on the floor between his legs after arresting him.

The trial continues Wednesday.

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